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A comically bad Ukrainian tennis player is raising eyebrows after losing every point in professional match

Thailand's Krittin Koaykul defeated Ukraine's Artem Bahmet in the opening match of the qualifying rounds of a tournament in Qatar.

Ukraine tennis
  • Koaykul played what's known as a "golden match," not dropping a point to Bahmet en route to a 60, 60 victory.
  • Bahmet looked outright lost on the court, leading some to wonder how and why he made it into the tournament field in the first place.
  • The Telegraph reports that unidentified people in a tennis betting forum have taken credit for the match as part of a gambling plot.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories .
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Thai tennis pro Krittin Koaykul completed what's known as a "golden match" while competing at a recent tournament in Qatar, winning all 48 points in a 60, 60 victory over Ukraine's Artem Bahmet.

While you might think that such an impressive and rare feat came thanks to a brilliant match played by Koaykul, the dominant final score was much more the fault of Bahmet, who looked lost on the court.

A video that surfaced showing the final few points of the match showed Bahmet swinging and wildly missing the ball, and lobbing in serves that might not even register on a speed gun.

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Watching just a point or two, it becomes evident that Bahmet is far closer to a tennis novice than someone who should be taking part in an actual tournament.

Seeing such a lackluster effort on the court leaves one to wonder how exactly Bahmet found himself playing in the tournament. According to Tennis.com , some tournaments at the lower level of the sport allow players to pay their way into the field:

"Sometimes tournaments don't fill their qualifying draw, which opens up the door for anyone who pays the tournament entry fee and has an ITF membership, or 'IPIN.' In a sport like tennis, where revenue is not necessarily free-flowing, the tournament has no incentive to deny entry when there are open spots in the draw. It's simply extra money for the tournament."

While that may explain how Bahmet found himself on the court, it doesn't explain why he chose to compete when so clearly overmatched.

According to the Telegraph , there was talk of Bahmet's match on an online tennis gambling forum, including a few people bragging about being behind the match.

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From the Telegraph:

"An online forum in Russian, which is dedicated to tennis betting, featured posts from gamblers claiming to be Bahmet's accomplices, along with screenshots of bets that seemed to have placed on the match with Bet365."

"If genuine, these bets raised 2,203.54 from an investment of around half that amount. One of the posters wrote 'Bets on this match paid for a trip of two people to Doha and a week in an excellent hotel, and also earned good money from above.'"

Match-fixing is a major problem throughout the lower tiers of professional tennis. The problem is blamed on the proliferation of online gambling and the low payouts for players attempting to scrape by playing smaller tournaments.

The poster went on to say that they planned to pull the same stunt at another tournament next week. However, after the video of Bahmet made the rounds on the internet, it might be tougher to pull off without being noticed.

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No matter the reason, it's likely that we won't see another match this one-sided for some time.

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